Manhattan Associates has introduced new retail features in its Manhattan Active Omni platform, adding artificial intelligence tools and fulfilment functions for store, service and checkout operations.
The release includes three new AI agents: a Store Associate Agent, a Contact Centre Agent and an OMS Configuration Agent. All are available within the Manhattan Active Omni user interface and use natural language to support sales and service teams.
According to Manhattan, the tools provide information on store activity, sales trends, inventory, returns and customer behaviour. The aim is to help store associates and customer service teams resolve issues more quickly and tailor support to shoppers.
Checkout update
The update also includes changes to checkout. Manhattan Active Point of Sale now features a Customer Facing Display that lets shoppers view their cart in real time during a transaction.
The display also allows customers to add loyalty information, enter shipping details and choose how they want to receive a receipt. Retailers can also collect additional customer input at the point of sale to improve transaction accuracy and reduce delays.
Fulfilment changes
The company has also added what it calls a Fulfilment Optimisation Simulation engine. The tool lets retailers model and compare different fulfilment approaches by weighing cost, speed, service level and margin.
According to Manhattan, the engine provides data on split shipments, total fulfilment costs, location-level distribution and other key performance indicators using the same set of orders for each strategy. Users can adjust optimisation rules, rerun simulations and compare results side by side.
The system also supports what-if scenario planning. Teams can use it to test constraints, assess operational changes and analyse trade-offs through self-service tools, including by replaying historical or selected orders.
Brian Kinsella, Senior Vice President of Product Management at Manhattan Associates, linked the changes to the demands facing retailers across stores and digital channels.
"Retailers are under constant pressure to move faster, operate smarter, and deliver seamless experiences across every touchpoint," said Brian Kinsella, Senior Vice President of Product Management, Manhattan Associates. "Our latest updates reflect Manhattan's ongoing commitment to delivering cutting edge artificial intelligence within our applications. Whether it's the myriad machine learning algorithms present for years or our new Agentic AI and Fulfilment Simulation capabilities, we've long believed true AI needs to live within rather than alongside our applications. We're proud to partner with a number of world class retailers on the design and development of these breakthrough technologies."
Platform focus
The latest release reflects how retail software suppliers are focusing on tools embedded within operational systems rather than separate applications. In this case, Manhattan is bringing together store workflows, customer service processes, checkout interactions and order fulfilment analysis within the same product suite.
For retailers, that points to a broader push to use a single set of systems to manage both customer-facing activity and back-end order decisions. The additions also reflect wider industry efforts to apply AI to frontline retail tasks while giving operations teams more ways to test how fulfilment choices affect cost and margin.
Manhattan, which provides supply chain and omnichannel commerce software, said the changes are intended to help retailers improve online and in-store sales while refining fulfilment decisions and customer interactions.